This invention relates to a process for making crackers which contain various fillings. More particularly, this invention relates to baking hollow crackers which can be injected with a filling. This invention also relates to filled hollow crackers.
It is known in the prior art to make a variety of filled bakery products. However, most of these products are of a soft consistency which permits for the easy filling of the interior cavity of the product. An example of such a product is the conventional cream puff pastry. Since these products have a soft shell they are rather easily filled with any desired filling. However, this is not the case with regard to hard items such as cookies, bread sticks and crackers. These latter types of food items have a tendency to crack and disintegrate when they are pierced by a needle which is to insert the filling into the product. Consequently other methods have been used in the past.
As an example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,485 there is disclosed a method and apparatus for inserting a filling into bread sticks. The technique that is utilized is to remove one end of the bread stick, drill a hole downwardly into the center of the bread stick and then to insert the filling into this drilled hole. This will produce a bread stick which has a filling, however the process and equipment that are required considerably reduce the feasibility of commercially producing such a product.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,536 discloses a method for producing a filled food product which consists of a relatively hard outer surface which encloses a soft filling. The outer shell of this bakery product is produced utilizing egg white which is intimately and homogeneously distributed throughout the dough. No leavening agents are utilized. The structure of the pastry shell and the strength of the pastry shell is dependent on the use of egg white within the dough formulation. After the shell has been formed it can be pierced by a filling needle point and filled with a particular type of pastry filling.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,508 discloses a process for producing filled hard dough biscuits. In this patent there is described a process for producing biscuits which during the preparation process have a leavening increase of at least 280. This is accomplished by utilizing a particular dough composition. The dough composition consists of a cereal dough containing 10 to 30 parts by weight of sugar, 10 to 25 parts by weight of an edible fat or oil, and 20 to 35 parts by weight of water, all based upon 100 parts by weight of cereal flour. A leavening agent is desirably added in an amount of 2.0 to 4.0 weight and the dough is then rolled into a sheet. The sheet is alternately folded and rolled. The thus prepared dough sheet is then formed into various desired shapes and the formed shapes baked. During the baking process the percentage of leavening that occurs is at least 280. After the baked and expanded shapes leave the oven a non-dough filling is inserted into the essentially hollow center of the biscuit.
The expanded biscuits which are described and disclosed in this patent are based upon a critical composition for the cereal dough that is utilized. It is stated in this patent that if the sugar content is increased to 40 parts by weight with the oil or fat content being 15 parts by weight, all based on 100 parts by weight of wheat flour, and the water content being 17 parts by weight the resulting baked product will be hard but structurally weak, and will give poor feeling during eating. In the instance where the cereal dough is prepared with an excess of oil or fat, as for example where the dough contains 25 parts by weight of sugar, 30 parts by weight of oil or fat and 16 parts by weight of water per 100 parts by weight of flour, the resulting baked product will be crumbly and very susceptible to breaking during the step of inserting the needle into the biscuit to insert the filling. The same effect will occur if the water content of the dough is increased to compensate for a decreased proportion of sugar and/or oil or fat. The preferred ranges for the dough components in this patent are 10 to 30 parts by weight of a sugar, 10 to 25 parts by weight of an oil or a fat, and 35 to 20 parts by weight of overall water, all per 100 parts of weight of the cereal flour.
In essence this patent provides a teaching that a dough that would be utilized for the production of crackers is not the type of a dough that can be used to make dough products similar to those of the patent. This however is not the case if the present process is utilized. When the present process is utilized a cracker dough can be effectively used to make expanded and shaped items wherein the shell has sufficient strength and integrity to withstand the insertion of a needle to thereby insert a filling into the expanded cracker. By using the present process there does not result a cellular internal structure with a plurality of voids, but rather a cracker that is essentially hollow and which can be filled with a suitable filling by means of needle injection.